Touring around Tours

I once saw a bumper sticker that read, "New Jersey: A Great Destination in Any Direction!" I couldn't help but think it was a little sad. The selling point of your state is how great everything else is around it? When I think about it, though, this is a large part of the reason why I love Bordeaux so much. Of course it's fantastic all on its own, but if you take any method of transportation, in two hours or less you can be in yet another amazing place. This week's episode of "Awesome Weekend Getaways From Bordeaux" features Tours and the Loire Valley.

Even though the SNCF is on strike about every other day, when the trains are running, they are actually quite pleasant and efficient. The stations are always very close to the center of town, which means that walking or taking public transit to your hotel is easy and affordable. We stayed at the quaint and quiet Hotel du Cygne right in the heart of Tours, a short 10 minute walk from the train station. 

On the way to the hotel, we stopped by the tourist office to see what was on for the weekend. They had lots of suggestions, maps, and brochures, as they always do at the tourist offices of Europe, and we started to sketch out a plan. Tours itself is lovely but not very big and it seemed like its main appeal was to serve as the gateway to the châteaux of the Loire Valley. After a quick stroll around town, which included a drink in the picturesque Place Plumereau, we decided to book a tour for the next day that would shuttle us around to several different castles in the area.

We had to leave pretty early in the morning for our excursion with Touraine Evasion because we had four different castles to see in just one day!

Castle 1: Amboise

Our first stop was definitely a good starting point. Amboise, in addition to being a beautiful example of 15th century architecture with panoramic views of the Loire, is the final resting place of THE Leonardo Da Vinci.

Castle 2: Chenonceau
This was definitely my favorite of the bunch that we saw, and the second most visited castle in France after Versailles. It's construction was overseen in large part by Katherine Briçonnet from 1515 to 1521 and it was later updated by Diane de Poitiers and Catherine de Medici. Although Catherine was queen, Diane was Henri II's mistress and he gifted her the castle in 1547. She was responsible for the beautiful gardens and fruit trees you can see around the castle. Catherine finally took it over when Henri II died and she went to great lengths to beautify the place even more with paintings and floral gardens, mostly so she could impress all her guests when she threw wild parties there. Like a boss.

Castle 3: Cheverny
After Chenonceau, pretty much any castle is going to seem just average, but Cherverny was still pretty cool because of it's dog kennel, with 100 hunting hounds wandering around all over the place. It was also the inspiration for Marlinspike Hall in The Adventures of Tintin. Another fun fact: this castle has belonged to the Hurault family for over 600 years and they still live there today.

Castle 4: Chambord
We finished strong with a visit to the MASSIVE Château Chambord. It's hard to describe how big this place really is and the pictures don't even do it justice. The 16th century was all about building castles to impress your friends and no one was doing it better than the French kings. When it was finally finished during Louis XIV's reign, Chambord was used mostly as a hunting lodge and occasional party house. There were a couple of occupants later on, but today it's a museum owned by the French government and has been classified as a UNESCO world heritage site.

We were pretty castled out by the end of the day but I think we were both glad to have seen all that we did. Back in Tours, we went for dinner at this great Italian restaurant called Zafferano where the chef cooks right out in the open and doesn't let you order wine for yourself. He will choose the best wine based on what you order and that's what you will have. We ended up chatting with him late into the night (half in French, half in English), learning all about his charity organization and what he loves about being a chef.

The next day, we wandered around the city of Tours a little bit and stopped by St. Gatien's Cathedral and the Musée du Compagnonnage, or the Craftsmen Museum. Normally, I am not super into churches or museums, but both of these were worth the visit. The cathedral had some of the most beautiful stained glass windows I have ever seen and the museum was filled with really cool handmade works made by traveling craftsmen. They were the people that built the castles, did the iron working, constructed the bridges all over Europe and were some of the original Free Masons.

We finished our visit to Tours with a beer and a snack en terrasse at a little bar down the street from our hotel. We ended up sharing some jambon cru and this amazing foie gras with this random French guy named Vincent who decided it was a good day to chat up some Americans. Thanks, Tours, for a lovely weekend!

Château de Tours. Meh.

The lovely Loire river

This is made completely of sugar.

We are Aoûtiens - Part 2

August 16-23: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin and Belfast

We were back in Bordeaux for a hot second before hopping back on a plane to the UK again, but this time a bit further north to Scotland. We landed in Edinburgh, right in the middle of the Fringe Festival, one of the world's largest art festivals. The city was teeming with people, so much so that we had to stay in a dorm room on a college campus outside of the city because every single hotel downtown was booked up.

Despite the wet and windy conditions, even in the middle of August, Edinburgh is an amazingly beautiful city. Castles and cathedrals, ruins and winding roads, hilltops and the High Street: every part of Edinburgh is remarkable.

Climbing King Arthur's Seat

Edinburgh Castle

On top of the physical beauty, we saw some amazingly talented performers while we were in town. Musicians, comedians, burlesque dancers, magicians, photographers, beatboxers... There was something for everyone and if we had all the time and money in the world, we would have stayed for more shows. Alas, the clock was ticking and we had many more adventures lined up for the week.

We were off to Glasgow next, mostly for its cheaper hotel rates and convenient airport connection to Dublin, which would be our third stop. I didn't know much about Glasgow except that there were castles and things in the area, but without a car, we were basically confined to the city center. Coming off the heels of our big road trip in England and a hectic day in Edinburgh, we were in pretty urgent need of some R&R so our time in Glasgow was very low-key. Highlights included our ultra-modern hotel at Citizen M, tasty BBQ at The Raven and a delicious meal at Café Gandolfi in Merchant Square. No, we did not catch any of the Commonwealth games.

We very nearly ended up at the wrong airport due to a bus mix up, but we managed to make it to Dublin nevertheless. We had a hotel near the Temple Bar and Trinity College so we were right in the heart of all the action. Dublin is as much fun as they say it is, with tons of great pubs, museums, the Guinness Storehouse, the Jameson Distillery and you can't swing a cat in that town without hitting an amazing cathedral. We got caught up in some sort of traditional Gaelic dance in the middle of a pub one night and it was a pretty good representation of our time in Ireland. Friendly folk, good drink, good times.

It was tough to leave Dublin but we had one more stop on our list: Belfast in Northern Ireland. Again, this destination was chosen more for its convenience in cheap flights back to Bordeaux but it turned out to be a great time. We were initially a bit worried when the woman at the tourist office told us Belfast was known for "good crack" only to find out later that craic really means "partying" or "good times" in Belfast-ese. (As an aside, their version of English is a hot mess and I couldn't understand a single word anyone said for two days.)  This turned out to be true, and we had a great time going to pubs, listening to live music, and eating some great seafood.

Since I love boats, we took a little ride on the river to learn about the history of the Titanic (city slogan: "She was alright when she left here!") and discovered that a whole bunch of things are filmed at Titanic Studios in Belfast, most notably Game of Thrones, which I still have never watched. We checked out Belfast Castle and since the zoo was closed, we went for what was supposed to be a short walk that turned into a no-joke hike in Cavehill Park. The view from the top was well worth the climb and the sore legs the next day.

Despite the wind, occasional rain and downright winterlike temperatures, we had a wonderful time. The whiskey helped.